House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-05 Daily Xml

Contents

Coastal Management

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (15:09): My question is to the Deputy Premier. Has the minister, or the minister with delegated responsibility, taken any action to progress the review of options for sustaining our metropolitan coastline? With your leave, and that of the house, sir, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The minister admitted on ABC radio on 27 June that the review had not commenced, over three months into the life of this government. A climate emergency has been declared yet no practical action to address our frontline defence, our coastline, has occurred despite the significant risks of inaction and delay.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (15:10): The minister who will be taking the responsibility for the review of the question of whether the pipeline is the best way to manage sand along the coastline has now been identified. By virtue of having a conflict of interest, I don't know what discussion has happened between the department and minister Maher, who is the minister in the other place who has that responsibility. I don't know what discussions have happened in terms of setting up the review.

But, given that the question appears to be a sense of urgency about responding to the challenges of the management of the coastline, I can reassure the public through question time about damage that has occurred recently along the coastline, significantly at West Beach but also a little further north and indeed at Semaphore South. That damage from the fairly serious winter storms we have had in the last month or so is going to be repaired in the very near future. The department is sourcing sand that will be placed onto those beaches in order to start to repair the damage.